Lord Ser Brightblade

How to Call in Sick When You Just Need a Day Off It's a time honored tradition to call in sick to score a day off now and again. More than one of us has been caught with rookie mistakes though. Follow these instructions and you'll be lounging on the couch with no problems. Steps 1. Find a quiet place for the phone call. 2. Call your boss. 3. Keep the excuse short and to the point. See below for examples. 4. Get off the phone as quickly as possible. Tips * If you can, call your boss's voice mail rather than speaking with him or her directly. This avoids the possibility of questions and awkward advice that often trips up the caller. * When making the phone call, if you can do it early in the morning, when your voice is still rough with sleep, that will give added credibility. * For an added effect, bend over your toilet while pressing your forearm into your stomach so you begin to sound like your stomach is really being affected by whatever you are calling about. (Usually this would make you sound like you just finished vomiting.) * If you're outside the house, calling from your car might be the quietest place you can manage. * It's a good idea to mention in passing how you are feeling better or your car is all fixed when you return to work. * Keep an eye out for other people who have been sick at work and use the 'I must have gotten it from ...' excuse. Warnings * It's important that your boss think you are sick in your bed. Blaring music or a loud TV can destroy that image as thoroughly as thousands of screaming fans at a football game. * Long rambling messages are to be avoided. When lying, you are tempted to embellish. Don't. When calling in sick, less is more. The old standbys of food poisoning, flu, cold, all work because we've all been through them. * Calling in sick without being sick is best done for one day (or possibly two days in a row). Longer than that may require a note from your doctor. * Don't come back to work the next day with a suntan, pictures, stories, etc. If you share what you have done with your coworkers, they may turn on you and tell your boss. Worse, they may steal all of your good excuses. * Be careful with car excuses unless you are willing to stay at home, since if someone from work sees you in town then you are busted. * Do NOT use an excuse about someone in your family dying because the boss can find out for sure and you will be caught in a lie. This will make you less credible to your boss when someone really does die. * Do not use a family member that is still alive. You might have to go to their funeral next week, or find yourself talking about an amazing party that the so called deceased is giving this weekend.

Dear Yahoo!: What is the history of clapping for entertainment? Roger Salem, Missouri Dear Roger: While it's impossible to pinpoint an exact origin, Take Our Word For It notes that clapping for praise has been around since at least the Middle Ages. Early mentions of the practice coincide with the advent of public performances, usually by traveling bands of actors in town squares. Metafilter says that folks have been clapping for joy since Biblical times. According to Yahoo! Reference, the word "clap" comes from the Old Norse "klappa." It's a classic example of onomatopoeia. Some believe clapping may have been inspired by the percussion instruments used in early public ceremonies, while others note the act appears to be an instinct in babies. In many cultures, however, clapping isn't necessarily associated with praise. In Tibet, it's used to shoo away evil spirits. And in other cultures, foot stomping is considered the appropriate response to a great performance. Now that we have that settled, we can get back to pondering the sound of one hand clapping. Any help is welcome.

Why Do Men Have Nipples? Wed Aug 3, 2005 11:26 AM ET By John Zawadzinski NEW YORK (Reuters) - Have you ever wondered why your teeth chatter when you're cold, or if you could really catch a disease from sitting on a toilet seat? New York physician Billy Goldberg, pestered by unusual questions at cocktail parties and other social gatherings over the years, puts the public's mind at ease in his book "Why Do Men Have Nipples?" which hits the book stores on Tuesday. "It's really remarkable how often you get accosted," said Goldberg, 39. "There are the medical questions from family and friends, and then there are the drunk and outrageous questions where somebody wants to drop their pants and show you a rash or something." The book, subtitled, "Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini," (Three Rivers Press), is co-authored by humorist Mark Leyner. "People tend to know so little about their bodies as compared to their cars or their laptops," said Leyner, 49, of Hoboken, New Jersey. "When I worked in a pharmacy in Washington, D.C., people would ask me medical questions all the time. I was just a 22-year-old cashier at Rite Aid." Chattering teeth is one way the body tries to generate heat. When the body gets too cold, the area of the brain called the hypothalamus alerts the rest of the body to begin warming up. Shivering, the rapid muscle movement that generates heat, then begins. Teeth chattering represents localized shivering. During the course of their research, Goldberg and Leyner found reports of gonorrhea, pinworm and roundworm found on toilet seats -- but catching something from it isn't common. The authors discovered that an office setting might be worse for your health than toilet seats. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, found the typical office desk harbors some 400 times more disease-causing bacteria than the average toilet seat. Goldberg had compiled a list of nagging questions for several years before embarking on the book after meeting Leyner. The two met while working on a short-lived ABC-TV medical drama, "Wonderland," in which Leyner served as a writer, while Goldberg was its medical advisor. BURNING QUESTIONS Some of the burning questions answered in the humorous book include "What causes morning breath?" and "Why do beans give you gas?" Goldberg says morning breath results from anaerobic bacteria, the xerostomia (dry mouth) or the volatile sulfur compounds (which are waste products from the bacteria). Other contributing factors to foul oral odor includes medication, alcohol, sugar, smoking, caffeine, and eating dairy products. Beans contain high percentages of sugars that our bodies are unable to digest, Goldberg explains. When the sugars make it to the intestines, bacteria go to work and start producing large amounts of gas. And if you're ever bitten by a poisonous snake, sucking at the bite to remove the poison, as often shown in the movies and on TV is not only ineffective, but could lead to an infection. Instead, the bite should be washed with soap and water and immobilized. The bitten area should also be kept lower than the heart. Medical help should be sought immediately. And why do men have nipples? While only females have mammary glands, we all start out in a similar way in the embryo, the authors explain. The embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in. Men, however, have already developed nipples.

Use em now because when ML comes out that method of skill gain will go poof. Sadly this means that once again tinkered golems will become useless and will result in a complete and utter destruction of the market for golem sales from tinkers. Thank God tinkers will be able to make stat jewlery or that would be a good skill to flush down the crapper with the new expansion.

Hmm tried to set it up as an image but wouldnt allow it. I wonder if they block direct linking.

Click the link to see more information: Click me!

Glad you and your mom are home. Hope she recovers quickly!!!

The time is nigh! The legacy is soon to be revealed. Pre-ordering for Mondain’s Legacy will begin August 14th via an online store. For only $29.99 you will receive: * One Mondain’s Legacy Account Upgrade code (which will give you access to all UO expansion pack content, including Samurai Empire) * One Mondain’s Legacy Account Creation code (which will come with the first 30 days free) * One pre-order in-game gift, which will be announced soon Keep watching UO.com for more updates this week!

You should talk to Valshea he is the Yoda of Porn

Space shuttle to get critical fix By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter, Houston An astronaut is to make unprecedented repairs to the space shuttle Discovery, the US space agency Nasa has announced. Stephen Robinson will remove strips that are sticking out between heat shield tiles on Discovery's belly. Nasa is concerned the dangling material - called gap fillers - could cause part of the shuttle to overheat as it re-enters the atmosphere. Astronauts have never fixed a shuttle's heat shields on a spacewalk before - or gone under an orbiting shuttle. The International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm will position Discovery mission specialist Robinson underneath the shuttle so he can pull the gap fillers out. If this doesn't work, he will use a saw to hack them away. This task will be added to the third planned spacewalk of the mission - which may be delayed to give the crew time to prepare. Uncertain effects Wayne Hale, the shuttle's deputy programme manager, said Nasa could not be certain what effect the protruding gap fillers would have as the shuttle heats immensely during re-entry. We needed to take action Wayne Hale, deputy shuttle programme manager On balance, shuttle managers decided that a spacewalk to pull out the strips - though itself risky - would be preferable to letting the shuttle return as it is. "When we looked at the unknown versus what we do know about (spacewalks), it was a very easy decision," said Mr Hale. "The bottom line is there is large uncertainty because no one has a very good handle on aerodynamics at those altitudes and those speeds. Given that large degree of uncertainty, life could be normal during entry or some bad things could happen." A team of managers, engineers and aerodynamicists has been working to address the issue for the past three days. The shuttle's 15m-long Orbiter Boom Sensor System will be moved alongside Mr Robinson so that astronauts on the station and ground controllers can watch him carrying out the procedure. 'New Nasa' "This is the new Nasa. If we cannot prove this is safe, we don't want to go there. It exceeded our threshold and we needed to take action," Mr Hale said. The underside of the shuttle is exposed to the most intense heating during its re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. Protrusions on this otherwise smooth belly could disturb the air flow during re-entry, causing turbulence that raises temperatures on heat shield tiles downstream. Chuck Campbell of the shuttle's aerodynamics team said the gap fillers could increase heat loads on shielding tiles by an estimated 10-30%. "We're talking about several hundred degrees," he explained. On re-entry the shuttle's underside can be exposed to temperatures of 1,260C (2,300F) or higher. Records check Damaged tiles are particularly vulnerable to overheating. The phenomenon can also cause problems with the shuttle's flight control. Two gap fillers are sticking out from between heat shield tiles near Discovery's nose section, one by about 2.8cm (1.1in) and the other by about 2.2cm (0.9in). Nasa officials say this is not related to damage from foam debris. Instead, the fabric could have been shaken loose by the vibrations during launch. Shuttle managers have been going back over records of the STS-73 shuttle mission in 1995. On that mission, space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth with a gap filler protruding by 3.5cm (1.4in). The shuttle experienced early heating on re-entry, but returned to Earth safely. But eight years later, a suitcase-sized piece of foam fell away from Columbia during its launch, punching a hole through heat-shield panels in the left wing. The damage did not present problems in orbit, but as the vehicle tried to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003, super-heated gases entered the wing and tore the ship apart. Story from BBC NEWS:

You just want all my porn..... I need to set up my shoutcast server to stream video now that I can convert the .tivo files. For those that want to listen to music offf my shoutcast server just open up winamp and open url www.infinitywarrior.org:8000. If you wanna be ghetto and just use your browser clicking here should work too. I need to update the playlist but hey if you PvP there is some decent slaying music up at the moment (though it could be much better). Right now I have max users set at 3 and it streams at 56bit stereo so sound quality is pretty good.

Heh at 384 that would take some serious time. Not to mention FTP's are a whole lotta asking for trouble too

I didnt get the bluetooth keyboard and mouse set (mx900) though....and I haven't seen the keyboard that comes with the set for sale by itself

That sig is almost as cool as bears that shoot lasers out of thier eyes advancing on an army of ninja-wizards!

Taken from Slashdot The Real Hitchhiker's Guide? Portables Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday July 31, @10:05AM from the glimpses-of-what's-to-come dept. An anonymous reader writes "The UK's biggest selling newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, has a news story about a UK Company that has developed the real version of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the galaxy. It is a kind of portable media player that allows you to travel the world's surface and recieve media tailored to who you are, where you are and what you are looking at."

Well if you get it get the lifetime....I wish I had when it was 199 but my wife said "No....let's see if we like it for a year first. Since owning the Tivo for 3 years we have more than paid for a lifetime subscription even at the present $299. The only way not to have to pay is to build a PC and install Freevo (I think thats what it is called) then you go download the program listings weekly (or have Freevo do it for you). Since I dont have a spare PC and 200 gig drive laying around I'll continue to use my TiVO Oh. I can now convert the .tivo files to .mpg just fine. Now I either need to cut up the files (30 minutes is roughly 800 meg) or get a DVD burner ...or option 3 I could upload a file somewhere overnight (would take many hours given my upstream is only 384)

Have no fear I think i can figure out how to rip the .tivo files which means i can then burn them or put them out somewhere for a person to download..... I should know by tommorow if I can get the proper software up and running. Course the File will be monsterous but I can send it overnight....or burn it and mail it via snail mail.

Nice new sig Malakas!

You can set the roller to open tabs too The MX900 rocks! I still need to find a nice keyboard. I was gonna go wireless but i hear ill go through batteries like a madman.

There is but unfortunately BB code (at least in the way it is set up currently) will not support hidden embedding or switches such as loopin and autostart on and off... You probably did something like this <BODY BGSOUND SRC="sound.mp3"> or this <EMBED SRC="sound.mid" HIDDEN=TRUE AUTOSTART=TRUE LOOP=TRUE>

Edited out from a great Manowar song. Click the link and enjoy! I cant figure out why it fades out for a second at the beginning but if you play the clip again after its completed it seems to go away. The Warriors Prayer

Right on. I thought there was some kinda SG/BSG coup going on!

I bet flingging pizza in 100 degrees of heat sucks! I remember working in a kitchen at a Private club in college (I was waitstaff) and on hot summer days it was pure unadulterated pain to be in there.

Here comes the attack of the new Microsoft OS. This was previously known as Longhorn for you computer geeks. Looks like it might be nice. Then again even if it isn't what choice will many of us have Click here to see what Microsoft has planned for 2006